Recent South Africa 10 And 20 Cent Oddities

On your 1st coin itlooks like a piece of metal was on the die before the flan/planchet was place then struck.

Is it iron as it does look rusty

Yours

michael

Thanks for the comments!

I'm still not sure what happened with the first coin, whether it was a damaged set of dies or post-production damage to the coin itself. I put it under the scope and had a closer look- the "craters" (for lack of a better term) have differing and irregular edges- not something you'd expect if someone stabbed the thing with an ice-pick, knife-point, die punch or the like. Besides, I wouldn't expect as much displaced metal from that kind of strike (look at how thick the edges are on the "pinprick" crater on the reverse- would a stab from a very sharp object really do that?). It obviously wasn't run over by a car (we all know what that looks like), and the edges of the craters are worn approximately the same amount as the rest of the coin, indicating that if the coin wasn't produced like this it was damaged shortly thereafter. The craters are filled with crud, but that could easily have happened any time during the coin's life.

On the other hand, I still can't picture what could have happened to the dies to produce this effect, unless it was some gouge in the die that was subsequently filled with a chunk of metal harder than the planchet. Still doesn't make much sense...

Anyway, thanks again for having a look!

cheers,
tbg

Thats a great Cud on the second coin! A definite keeper!